


Metempsychosis - Welcome To The Team!

by LadyMorgaine76



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Divergent - Post S6, Gen, How Kuron became a part of Team Voltron, Lance offers support and a solution, Romelle is there... I just forgot to give her a line..., keith is stubborn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 19:39:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17331140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMorgaine76/pseuds/LadyMorgaine76
Summary: Faced with the option of transferring Shiro's mind into the body of defeated clone, Keith is faced with a line he cannot cross:Is the deliberate taking of the life of someone who was nothing more than an involuntary pawn on Haggar's spy game, morally acceptable?Is getting Shiro back worth breaking ANY moral boundaries?Can he make the choice?Lance might just have the solution for this gruesome problem...





	Metempsychosis - Welcome To The Team!

**Author's Note:**

> Metempsychosis:  
> 1.the transmigration of the soul, especially the passage of the soul after death from a human or animal to some other human or animal body.
> 
> Origin of metempsychosis:  
> 1580–90; < Late Latin < Greek, equivalent to metempsȳchō-, variant stem of metempsȳchoûsthai to pass from one body into another (see met-, em-2, psycho-) + -sis -sis

<https://youtu.be/C0uFakDj5D8>

 

 

“No!”

The thundering sound of his voice had managed to surprise even himself.

The rest of the team was seemingly paralyzed by it as well and Lance… well, let’s just say Keith was aware that we was piling up apology reasons since he’d stepped out of the Altean shuttle…

But this time he had a good reason to talk like that!

“But, Keith!” Allura stepped forward “How do we get Shiro back to us? Transferring his consciousness from the Black Lion and into the clone’s body is the only way!”

She lowered her tone until it was a soothing, appeasing one.

The princess was trying to reason with him, but no matter how much he wanted Shiro back, he couldn’t stop thinking that this unconscious body by their feet was nevertheless a living being… one with as many rights as any of them.

He hadn’t asked to be created. He hadn’t asked to be used as nothing more than a weapon…

Denying him of help, allowing him to die, no matter what the reason, was unthinkable to Keith!

“We’re not taking a life just like that!” Keith argued. He tried not to, but the anger in his voice still surfaced. “You think I don’t want Shiro back? He’s my brother! I don’t need a blood connection to love him as such as if he’d been raised alongside me, borne from the same people or not! He’s been my only family for years! Of course I want him back! But just think about what we’re doing here…” He groaned, raking his fingers through his hair and biting his lip. “We’re… god… I can’t do this now… Just put him in the portable pod on board of Black. Stabilize him and sedate him. We’ll talk this through later on, just… give me some time…”

And with that, he turned around, leaving the rest of them behind. He needed to clear his head, ponder their choices, do anything but willingly accepting the death of the clone of his own brother. He kept walking aimlessly until he was far enough from the team. He sat down, trying to make some sense of it all, trying to organize the rambling thoughts in his head. He stood there for a while, like the solution to this ordeal would somehow magically appear in his brain!

“I really suck as a leader…” He whispered to himself, he knees drawn in, his head resting on them.

“Well… that’s debatable…” A voice chuckled by his side. Keith didn’t move, just listening to the rustling sound of Lance sitting at his side.

“What part of _‘I wanna be alone’_ didn’t you understand?” Keith mumbled.

“You actually didn’t specify that, you know? You said, and I quote ‘ _give me some time_ ’. Emphasis on time here! There was no mention of space…”

“Lance!” He raised his head, looking at the Blue Paladin -- “ _correction! Red Paladin!”_ Keith reminded himself.

“Yes, mullet?” Lance said, the most nonchalant expression in his face.

“I need some space...” Keith answered deadpan.

Lance squinted at him, waving his arms outwardly.

“Not that kind of space!”

“Tough.” Lance leaned on one of his arms, not taking his eyes out of Keith. “I’m not going anywhere. And don’t tell you don’t have the time for this!”

Keith hissed at that…

So, _that_ was going to be an issue still! Not like he didn’t see it coming…

“Sorry for that…” Keith said, his initial anger dissolving. “It was callous of me.”

“Damn right it was! We’re supposed to friends here, Samurai!”

“Oh?” Keith gave him a mock surprised look.

“Shut up, you! I’ve already apologized for my made up rivalry more than once, so let’s drop that, shall we?”

Keith shrugged. “Ok. I guess the _cooler, grizzled, older_ me is ready to let that one go, if you accept my apology…”

“You’re gonna give me a hard time over that for a very long time, aren’t you?” Lance smirked. “I was… trying to be funny…”

“ _Trying_ being the operative word…”

“Hmmm… You know what? I’m gonna let you have that one, because I’m a cool guy and I feel like it. BUT, you --” He pointed from him to Keith. “Are going to start doing that thing you hate, called _explaining shit coherently_ … This clone issue…”

“Doesn't’ it bother you?” Keith asked, keeping himself calm and collected, like he owed to Lance. “I mean… I understand! I really do! But i keep thinking… what happens to his mind, his essence, when Allura transfers Shiro’s mind into him? He ceases to exist. He dies. And we’re the ones responsible. He’s not an enemy soldier, Lance. He’s not someone in a fighter or whatever that we just _have_ blast away if we want to get out of it alive…”

Lance gazed at Keith for a while, leaning a bit to, then, looking at where the rest of the team stood, probably discussing what to do next, and turning to Keith again.

“I get it. I really do…” He sat, also drawing his knees closer. An unconscious mimic of Keith’s posture. “But what else can we do? We’re too damn young to be making decisions like these… We’re too damn young for all of this mess! We’re gonna need shrinks when we get home…” Lance muttered.

“Probably…” Keith snorted. “Should have brought one of those clone pods floating around us!” He rolled his eyes.

“Wait…” Lance’s face brightened, as he stood up.

“What?”

“Come on, mullet man!” Lance suddenly grabbed Keith’s wrists pulling him up. “You up for a ride in Red?”

“Lance…? What are you doing?” Keith asked him, a suspicious tone to his voice.

“We’re going clone fishing!”

Keith gaped at Lance. “WE’RE WHAT??? Are you out of your mind? That whole place blew up! Poof! All gone to smithereens!”

“Oh God! Texan Keith is making an appearance…”

“Lance!”

“Yup! That’s my name! You said it already.”

“Do you know the odds of finding a viable, working pod still floating around with an undamaged clone in it?” Keith asked him.

“Nope…”

“The odds are --”

Lance pressed one finger on Keith’s lip, effectively cutting him off. He smiled. It was a cocky smile, like he’d been waiting for that moment.

“Never tell me the odds!” He lowered the pitch of his voice, until it sounded deeper and warmer than usual.

Keith pressed his lips and crossed his arms, shaking his head at Lance.

“You did not just _Han Solo'd_ me!” He hollered.

“Damn right I did!”

 

 

 

 

********************

 

 

 

 

So, Lance’s idea had been a good one…

Ok, a _great_ one!

Keith might have even said it out loud…

He might have even felt compelled to hug the other Paladin… which he did!

They’d managed to find one intact pod amongst the wreckage Keith had left behind earlier and brought it back so they could check his vitals to see if this clone could be used. While still inactive, Pidge and Hunk checked him for any kind of controlling devices like Shiro’s clone’s arm had possessed. They found it and extracted it, destroying it without further a dues…

After making sure no risks would come from activating the clone’s body, Allura retrieved Shiro’s mind from the Black Lion transferring it to the clone.

It was not the instantaneous solution Keith had preferred, which meant they had begun their journey home, searching for a way to fully recharge their powered down Lions, with both clones on their respective pods, anxiously awaiting for any signs of improvement on both of them.

They had arrived at uninhabited planet, except for a diverse wildlife, when Allura gathered them by the Black Lion.

“I think they’re awakening!” She’d announced joyously.

The eight of them stepped into Black’s cargo bay, where the pods were beginning to open, revealing both men inside.

The clone holding Shiro’s mind was the first to regain consciousness. They all flocked around him, contemplating the image of their friend, hair gone completely light grey -- something about the quintessence consumption throughout the transfer process, Allura had explained -- , but still the same Shiro gazing at them with his eyes that seemed filled with understanding…

Keith wondered how much Shiro had been aware and vigilant of all that had happened during his stay inside Black’s Astral Plane… If he’d been present all the times, alongside Black’s sentient mind, guiding Keith through it all…

_Through it all…_

_Oh, no!_

Shiro was so gonna give him a hard time over his feelings for Lance… even after two years on a goddamn space whale!

Especially after _two whole years_!!

He might as well accept the fact that, after fully recovered, Shiro was gonna pull the Big Brother privilege card and remind him of every single embarrassing and cheesy thoughts (and fantasies…) he’d had about Lance!

“ _Fucking… Lance…!”_ Keith groaned internally. He would worry about it later though… Now, he was just happy to get Shiro back!

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Coran asked Shiro, his face showing all the worry he’d carried since the transfer.

“I’m fine, Coran.” Shiro assured him. “A bit drowsy, but otherwise everything’s alright.” He smiled. “Now, let’s see what we can do to help this guy here.” He said, standing up and walking towards the other pod. He snickered. “That’s so weird… it’s like looking at my twin brother… If I had one.”

“He’s stable now…” Keith approached him, with Lance, Pidge and Hunk on tow. “At least physically. We’re hoping you can help him with the rest.”

Lance stepped forward watching the pod beeping as it began the process of awakening its occupant and unlocking. “Yeah… He’s gonna need all the help we can give him. Must be so weird, to have to pretty much rebuild himself again as a person, distancing himself from memories that aren’t all really his to begin with!” He whispered, seeming pensive.

“That’s what we’re all here for, Lance.” Shiro turned to Lance, resting his real arm on the other Paladin’s shoulder. “We’ll help him along the way. We’ll be his friends… his family… like we’ve been to each other.”

Lance smiled, stepping a bit back as the clone’s pod finally began opening. “Yeah, you’re right!”

The whole team stood silently as the man inside the pod opened his eyes. Keith and Lance stepped forward to help him out, quietly waiting for him to get his bearings.

The clone’s eyes roamed through the group, finally closing in on Shiro’s figure. His expression became pained as he seemed to internalize the whole meaning of it all.

“You’re him, aren’t you? The real Shiro… which I’m… not…” He said, faintly. “I don’t know how but… I just know.”

Shiro rested his hands on each shoulder of the other man. “I am. Though just my mind truly is. My body is as much of a clone as you are.” He explained. “It was the only way to save both of us.”

The clone looked perplexed and even somewhat… moved by the idea that these people chose to save him too.

“Why?” He asked.

“Because no one gets left behind in this team!” Lance told him. And if he was paying attention, he might have noticed a sudden proud glint in Keith’s eyes along with a slight blush…

“Hell Yeah!” Hunk agreed as all of them turned a bright smile at the clone.

“We need a name.” Lance added. “If we call both of you Shiro, it’s gonna get confusing…”

The clone pondered on his words. “I guess I could go by Kuron… I think it was the name of the cloning project! I have some faint memories of hearing that name…”

“Wow….” Shiro whispered as Keith almost choked, trying not to laugh.

“Is it… not ok…?” The clone asked, visibly confused.

“Oh, no!” Keith began explaining. “It’s fine! Just fine! It’s just that, and bear in mind that I have no idea if the meaning is the same in Galra, the word _Kuron_ is actually Japanese for _Clone_ …”

“Oh…” And suddenly the man’s face lighted up. “Oh! Wait! I think I have memories of that… Japanese… I, well, _you_ were born there!” He looked at Shiro who nodded in agreement. “I can speak that!” And he seemed sincerely happy with the discovery of that particular memory. “So can you!” He turned to Keith. “You’re, uh, Japanese too!”

“And Korean… And Galra... “ Keith smirked, turning slightly to Krolia. “Anything else I should know?”

“There’s a lot you should know!” She admitted “You’re also a tad Nalquodian…”

“A what now?” Keith furrowed his brows.

Krolia sighed. “It’s a long story… one I’ll have to fully disclose when matter are less pressing.”

Keith let it go for the time, but he swore he could have picked up some awkward exchange of looks between his mother, Allura and Coran…

“Anyways…” Pidge fidgeted with her glasses. “I guess we got a name now. The twins are henceforth known as Kuron and Shiro! Works for me!” She shrugged.

“Twins?” Kuron rose an eyebrow… at the same time as Shiro.

“Well, Yeah!” Pidge told him. “You’re part of this crazy family now! And since both of you are exact copies, might as well get ‘adopted’ as Shiro’s twin! Less complicated that way.”

“I...uh…” Kuron seemed to consider Pidge’s idea, with a half-smile.

“Fine by me!” Shiro shrugged, smiling widely. “Congratulations, Keith! You’ve just won yourself another Big Brother!” He chuckled.

Keith rolled his eyes, his shoulders sagging.

“Oh, no…”

The whole team laughed and soon Keith joined in.

He guessed he could do with another brother…

Not bad for a Lone Wolf!

Not too bad at all, he thought to himself has his gaze wandered through the room, taking in the scene of all of his friends naturally and happily accepting Kuron in their midst.

_...His friends…_

His Family!

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 


End file.
